It begins

The movers arrived with our container this morning, and our life in Pittsburgh officially begins.  They were so fast and professional about it that six guys unloaded the entire container and were gone again before 2pm.  The process was far less painful than we expected, and the house is actually bigger than it seemed.  We're going to take it easy unpacking everything, focusing on the essentials first (kitchen, playroom and bedrooms) and slowly conquering each space from there.  And it's a good thing we had planned to take it slow...  Hubby started a horrible cough last night, and now he's got himself a fever too.  Poor man.  Welcome to our new home.

The girls are sharing a room that looked quite small until we actually put their beds, dresser and a shelving unit in there and saw a lot of floor space left over.  Now we just have to get them accustomed to falling asleep in the same room.  That has been wildly unsuccessful in the past, but we're determined to stick it out this time.  At least we have the whole summer holiday for them to adjust before it disturbs school night sleep.  

Our bedroom is quite small too, but we thought we'd have to squeeze our tummies in to fit past the bed to the closet...not so.  Whew!  Now, if only we could find where the Perth packers put the screws for the dresser...

There is a third, quite huge bedroom that is meant to be the master bedroom.  It seemed a waste of space for the biggest room to be for sleeping only, so we set it up as a guest room/studio for my sewing, knitting and computer work.  It already looks like a lovely space, and I'm excited we chose to set it up that way.

Tonight, I'm on kitchen patrol.  I am determined to have that room ready to go tomorrow morning.  There were sooooo many kitchen boxes.  It was painful, I admit.  Not one thing broke, but that seems expected when each individual glass was wrapped in 3-4 pieces of packing paper, such that 3 packing boxes were needed to contain them.  Sheesh.  I thought I'd never get them all unwrapped, but I did!  Now I have to put them away in a kitchen about half the size of my last kitchen....but I can do that too (somehow).

Our last house was so huge that of course we knew we had too much stuff, but there was ample space to put it all so we let it go.  In this house, there is no such problem.  The house is a (big) downsize.  We need to be selective about what we keep.  I am thankful for it, truth be told.  We rent the smallest house on this street, and I feel it is the perfect size for our family of four, plus room for guests.  That huge house we had before was certainly spacious, but it never felt like a home to me.  It was just too big.  I'm hoping we can make ourselves a lovely home in this house.  And the downsize will make it easier the next time we're looking for a home.  

For now, though, it's back to work for me.  The kitchen is calling.